Is Trump Doing A Good Job? Approval Rating Continues Overall Decline From Inauguration

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Jordan's Queen Rania and King Abdullah II outside the West Wing of the White House on April 5, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Getty Images

President Donald Trump can't get ahead in the polls — even when right-leaning companies are conducting them. A survey out Wednesday from Rasmussen Reports, often identified as a conservative polling group, found only 46 percent of likely American voters said they approved of the job Trump has been doing. More than a quarter of respondents said they strongly approved of his performance.

Though 46 percent was an uptick from Tuesday's Rasmussen Reports job approval rating of 43 percent, it was still down from the poll numbers Trump set out with. On Inauguration Day, the president had a 56 percent approval rating. His approval rating peaked at 59 percent a few days later and has fallen steadily since then, according to the outlet's approval index history.

Rasmussen Reports, which releases daily approval ratings, tends to lean to the right, according to FiveThirtyEight. Its survey results often cast Trump in a more positive light than others — for example, Gallup's most recent data put the president's approval rating at 42 percent, and Quinnipiac University pegged it at 35 percent.

Trump, who obsessed over his poll numbers during his presidential campaign, tweeted in February that "Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election." But as of last week, the commander-in-chief was joking about them, acknowledging that his wife Melania was beating him in the polls.

"I shouldn’t say this, but her poll numbers have gone through the roof last week," Trump said, according to Time. "What was that all about? Through the roof. She has to give us the secret, Mike. Right?"